Gazette Midday: Charbonneau goes provincial, parking tax doubles

Hello and welcome to montrealgazette.com and welcome to Midday. Here’s the rundown on some of the stories we’re following for you today.

A 12-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting his 16-year-old brother at their Dorval home had taken the handgun to his high school, The Gazette has learned. The fact that the boy had taken the gun outside the home could explain why prosecutor Marie-Claude Bourassa said last week that she is opposed to his being released on bail.

A bail hearing for the 12-year-old, who has been detained in a youth detention centre since last week’s shooting, is scheduled in youth court on Tuesday.

The boy’s family want him to be released so he can attend his brother’s funeral.

More explosive testimony is expected today from engineering executive Michel Lalonde as the Charbonneau inquiry broadens its scope to include contributions to provincial political parties.

First introduced by the city in 2010, the tax on all non-residential downtown lots has helped drive up parking garage prices more rapidly in Montreal than in almost any other large Canadian city, an October 2012 report by Colliers International said.

And finally, a new neuroscience study from researchers at the Université de Montréal and McGill University shows sexual minorities who have come out are in better mental and physical health than heterosexuals or people whose sexual orientation is still a secret.

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